After the EUR 300 energy flat rate, many pensioners will receive a further subsidy in 2023
Created: 12/23/2022, 4:55 am
By: Steffen Maas
With a major housing benefit reform from January 1, 2023, the government wants to relieve the financial burden on low earners – especially pensioners – in addition to the 300 euro energy flat rate.
Hamburg/Berlin – “More housing benefit for more people” is what the federal government promises as part of its major housing benefit reform in 2023. The amendment to the law, which is due to come into force on January 1, 2023 after approval by the federal states, not only gives low earners a second heating cost subsidy of the energy flat rate, but above all an increase in the payment and a reduction in the requirements.
The number of eligible households is expected to increase from 660,000 today to two million.
Pensioners in particular benefit from this.
Surname: | housing benefit |
|---|---|
Type: | social security benefit |
In the form of: | rent subsidy and subsidy |
Recipient: | low wages |
Introduction: | April 1, 1965 |
After an energy flat rate of 300 euros, there will soon be a housing benefit reform for pensioners: a large proportion can apply for housing benefit
Because of the more than 600,000 households entitled to housing benefit (in which around 1.5 million people live), almost half are currently retired.
If this distribution were to continue, around 700,000 pensioner households would also be entitled to “Wohngeld Plus” after the energy flat rate.
It is not for nothing that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) emphasized when announcing his reform plans that the plans “particularly” have pensioners in mind.
The service magazine
meine-pension.de
calculates an example that makes the extended group of beneficiaries clear: A single pensioner with a gross income of 1,500 euros and a gross rent of 500 euros would not receive housing benefit under the current guidelines.
If the example pensioner lives in a city in the middle rent category 4 - in the Hamburg area that would be Elmshorn - he would be entitled to an additional payment of 153 euros from January 1, 2023.
Depending on whether income can be offset against the allowance, the payment would increase accordingly.
As part of the relief package, many pensioners were paid the energy allowance.
The housing benefit reform will follow in 2023.
© photo booth/K.
Schmitt/Imago
Housing benefit plus: increase in payment and one-time "heating cost subsidy 2" after an energy flat rate
In addition to expanding the group of beneficiaries by raising the income limit, there is also more money - urgently needed by pensioners who, with their low income, have been overwhelmed by the exploding cost of living in recent months.
At this point, the energy lump sum that is paid out in December helps – and that nasty scammers are trying to dispute with the senior citizens.
Specifically, from January 2023 there will be an average of 190 euros more per month.
"That means a doubling of the housing benefit," emphasizes the press department of the federal government in a statement.
That means a drastic increase: Currently, recipients are paid an average of around 180 euros in housing benefit, from next year it would be around 370 euros a month.
Who is entitled to housing benefit?
Both
tenants
and
owners
(where the grant is then called a load
subsidy
)
People who
do not receive
transfer payments such as Hartz 4 (in future: citizen's allowance), basic state security or student loans
People with an income
above the subsistence
level and
below the
income
limit depending on rent and rent level
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A one-off payment is also being made as very quick help in the current crisis: The federal government wants to pay around two million people, including those receiving housing benefit, a second heating cost subsidy – the first was paid out in Hamburg in September, for example.
415 euros are provided for one person, 540 euros for two people and an additional 100 euros for each additional person.
"The grant should be paid out by the federal states before the end of the year, if possible," the federal government hopes.
Calculate housing benefit from 2023 – housing benefit calculator on the internet helps
If you want to see how much you benefit from housing benefit, you can calculate the approximate payment using the housing benefit calculator.
With the offer from
wohngeld.org
, for example, consumers can already include the new changes in the law in the calculations.
The information required for this is: the place of residence, the basic rent and the number of entitled household members.
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Important: The computer does not tell you whether you are authorized at all - it only works with the entered numbers.
Reliable information is therefore available either in the informative question-and-answer sheet of the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building or, more specifically, where the housing benefit must also be applied for: In Hamburg, the social service centers of the respective district offices are responsible.
